


Brother

by OdeToSolitude



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5x19, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Hell, Other, Spoilers for Episode: s05e19 Hammer of the Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 22:09:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1242409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OdeToSolitude/pseuds/OdeToSolitude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Spoiler Alert for 5x19 Hammer of the Gods</p>
    </blockquote>





	Brother

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler Alert for 5x19 Hammer of the Gods

Rage. Rage and an incalculable amount of agony twisted in Gabriel. His sense of duty and family battled with fierce love inside of him, and he watched, helpless, as Michael seized their brother and disappeared. There was much murmur around him, questions riddled with incredulousness and disbelief and on some occasions, disgust, but all Gabriel could feel was loss: as absolute and immense as the deepest ocean in the farthest galaxy. He looked towards He who was in charge, but found no answers to satisfy him.

~

Whispers and controversial murmurs provided him with the information he needed, and Gabriel was good at listening in to secrets. He had done it a thousand times before, hand in hand with his partner in crime. He had learned from the original trickster, his older brother himself. Lucifer would instruct him softly, a glint in his eyes as he spoke, sneakily pursuing their target for the day.

He was thrown into a cage in the deepest pit of hell, he had heard. Michael had done it himself, bolted and locked the door to never be opened again, but Gabriel was damned if he wasn’t going to try.

~

He stowed away his location, carving Enochian onto his vessel’s flesh to conceal himself. He dipped down into unfamiliar terrain, into the gaping maw of a fire whose thirst cannot be quenched. He snuck about, and finally, he reached it, the great Lucifer’s cage. The fallen angel, they called him now. Gabriel spat and simpered at the name, a fierce agony thrashing in his chest. How could they have done this to their own brother? How could Michael bring himself to lock him up, cast him away from his family and everything he knew? This was no place for an angel, let alone an arch angel. Their surroundings sizzled and bubbled with the intense heat and vileness. Wails of the tortured and the damned drummed against him, and he did his best to drown them out. They turned his thoughts very sour if he listened for too long.

He approached the huge doors, unsure exactly what his next set of steps were, so he did the most human thing he could think of.

He knocked.

 _“Lucifer…?”_  His voice was breathy, carrying no weight as he feared the worst. He feared what imprisonment would do to his brother, and whether or not it would break the strong, resilient Lucifer, whose name was tossed about heaven as a symbol of strength once, but only now whispered with shame and pity.

For a long moment there was no reaction, but Gabriel felt the very ground beneath him shake, and that was it. Something very deep in Gabriel’s gut told him his brother was just on the other side, listening keenly.

 _“Lucifer…brother. It’s Gabriel…”_  He wasn’t really sure why he was here. He told himself he was there to try and free his brother, but he knew the consequences were too great, and were he to ignore those, the feat nigh on impossible.

Out of nowhere, a large, booming voice that was very unlike anything Gabriel had ever heard out of his brother rang out, rancid and dripping with loathing and malice and bitterness. _“Leave, Gabriel. Do not return. You are no brother of mine.”_

He felt the words ring in his ear, twist an invisible hand in his gut and seemingly wrench his organs apart. Agony and misery and all the possible synonyms twisted in his chest and Gabriel’s hand fell away from the door, _“Brother…”_  He whispered, against his own better judgment

“ ** _LEAVE”_**

With that, Gabriel fled, but not back to heaven. That day the rank of angels dropped down by one more and they had no clue where Gabriel might have gone, and although they searched high and low, their brother seemed to have vanished completely from the universe.

~

Humanity: so precious, so fragile. There was a time when Gabriel thought nothing of them, the inbred cockroaches that they were when they started out, but now…now that he had lived amongst them for millennia, he knew better. Soft and breakable humanity, so tender and inviting. He saw that his Father was right, as most children do when they grow a few millennia old. Out of everything that had happened since he had deserted heaven, since he had begun living amongst men, this was the last thing he expected. And now, he was being dragged back into a war that wasn’t his own to begin with, standing off to face his own big brother in a semi-demolished room, their blades flashing.

_“Lucy, I’m home.”_

Out of the entire spectrum of emotion he thought he could feel in such a moment, he did not expect to feel relieved. This was the confrontation staged to happen so many years ago, one he was deprived from when Lucifer locked him out and disowned him. Gabriel was almost excited, his vessel zinging with the sting of adrenaline, his muscles shivering with anticipation. An old, strange feeling, however, was bubbling in the pit of his gut, a feeling he had swallowed down eons again, buried under hatred and loathing: love and a grief at a brotherly bond broken so easily. Despite everything, Gabriel missed Lucifer as only a loyal brother could, but his face betrayed none of that, and he was sure Lucifer’s face didn’t betray him either.

_“Lucifer, you’re my brother. And I love you. But you are a great big bag of dicks. Play the victim all you want. But you and me? We know the truth. Dad loved you best. More than Michael, more than me. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn’t handle it. So this is all just one big temper tantrum. Time to grow up.”_

Words he had drummed into his own skull after decades of agony and pain and a feeling of loss, a justification of their Father’s actions. Gabriel understood now, understood Lucifer’s jealousy and greed for their father’s attention. Lucifer could not stand to share.

The next moments happened in a blur, as Gabriel’s plans swiftly took motion. He knew what he had to be done and he knew it had to be him who did it. Lucifer wouldn’t expect it, not from baby brother Gabriel. He set his illusion in place, creeping behind the hulking figure of his brother, his mentor, the one he cared about most, and he knew his next move was for the better good. He was true to his words, he wasn’t doing it for Michael, or for Lucifer, or for himself for that matter, he was doing it for them. For their Father who had set all the events in motion, who knew that this would be how it would end.

A twist, a stab, a searing pain, a strangled sob, and Gabriel was cradled in Lucifer’s arms, the angel blade buried deep in his vessel, tainting his essence with its powers, his life and grace draining out.

_“Amateur hocus pocus. Don’t forget, you learned all your tricks from me, little brother.”_

His eyes watered, sobbing brokenly, quietly, mouth hanging open as he stared into the face of a brother he once loved, he once almost worshipped. He would’ve done anything for Lucifer, back then. Back when things were right and life was as it was supposed to be.

With one final gasp, the life left him, and Gabriel, arch angel of God, fell limp to the ground in a burst of white light, the scattering of his grace burning a permanent imprint in his surrounding; large charred wings that declared the loss of another heavenly soul.


End file.
